Witnessing Suburbia: Conservatives and Christian Youth Culture. By Eileen Luhr. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009. x, 269 pp. Cloth, $50.00, ISBN 978-0-520-25594-4. Paper, $19.95, ISBN 978-0-520-25596-8.)
2009; Oxford University Press; Volume: 96; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1093/jahist/96.3.932a
ISSN1945-2314
Autores Tópico(s)Music History and Culture
ResumoIn Witnessing Suburbia, Eileen Luhr explores intriguing and largely unknown intersections among evangelical youth, Christian rock music, and conservative politics. For example, she introduces the Christian metal band Stryken, which donned futuristic armor, stormed a Motley Crüe concert with an enormous cross, and preached about Jesus Christ until the band members were arrested. Recognizing the unwillingness of American evangelicals “to cede even the farthest reaches of the music world to either secular or satanic understanding,” Luhr contends “that the cultural activism of evangelicals aided the conser vative political surge by facilitating their entrance into national discussions about public morality and values” (pp. 200, 7). For instance, Christian metal bands in the 1980s recorded a surprising number of explicitly pro-life songs, such as Holy Danger's “Don't Slaughter Your Daughter” (1986) and Barren Cross's “Killers of the Unborn” (1987). These were rebels with a cause and a cross. Somewhat more vaguely, Luhr suggests that the emerging Christian music industry reified the “family values” simultaneously espoused by the Christian Right and by many conservative politicians. She also expands the notion of political activism among youth, including personal attempts at evangelism and prayer demonstrations at school flagpoles.
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